is the belief that TV characters are your friends a normal/expected behavior?

My mom has not been diagnosed with any cognitive impairments at this time however she has many many signs - memory loss, confusion, trouble finding the right words, etc. Her doctor, who is new in the last year is just seeing the issue and will be making a referral to a geriatric. He has ruled out uti, etc. This week she was saying that she has friends on the TV - and was hoping that he would be at an event we were going to - she even wanted to buy a gift for one of them. Has anyone seen this kind of thing?

Answers

Yes, its normal in a Dementia patient. The TV, dreams and reality become all one and the same. My Mom was watching a Diagnosis Murder episode and told me the man, Dick VanDyke, wanted to talk to me. I told her she was watching TV, her response was, oh yeah.

Sounds like dementia - my mom thinks that there are people outside doing various things and that the national news reporters are next door. She thinks that commercials are real events and that Donald Trump lives in our home town!

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